Daley , John Campbell (J C)

Killed in flying battle, in Middle East. Wellington Z 8778 of RAF Sea Rescue Flight took off at 1000 hours on 3 August 1942 from Landing ground 'X' in answer to a request from Flying Control AHQ, Egypt, to search for a missing Wellington aircraft of 104 Sqn which had signalled at about 0500 hours that it was force landing in position 30.51N, 29.52E. The Captain was instructed to carry out a search of the reported position to a depth of 30 miles. It was pointed out that the area traversed the main Cairo-Alexandria road and also contained a large number of aerodromes. At 1245 hours a snap D/F bearing by Gianaclis was 135 deg. At 1300 hours a WT signal from Z 8778 read "search had up to that time been unsuccessful, but continuing." At 1642 hours a further attempt was made to contact Z 8778 but was not successful. The aircraft had a safe endurance of 8 hours - perhaps over 10 hours. Extensive searches were made for Z 8778 over the next two days but were unsuccessful